Date : Mon, 02 Jul 1984 06:47:00 MDT (Mon)
From : Richard Conn <RCONN@Simtel20.ARPA>
Subject: ZCPR3 Phase 2
... is coming along quite nicely. The new DU3 is finished, complete
with its online documentation (which is rather extensive) and its new
screen-oriented editor. The editor ties in as an optional
command-line interface. You can select it in place of the simple DU3
prompt, and it displays the block you are currently positioned to, a
small menu of commands, and a cursor which points to a byte in that
block. You can move the cursor around to select any particular byte,
and then you can enter a string of chars or a list of hex values to
place into the block starting at the cursor. You can then write the
block to disk, advance to the next block, backup to the previous, etc,
as well as issue any value DU3 command string, including macros, to go
through a more complex command sequence and then return to the editor
automatically at the last block you were positioned at.
DU3, by the way, stands for Disk Utility version 3. There now
exists the prototype of MU3, a screen-oriented Memory Utility, which
resembles the DU3 screen-oriented editor but works on memory only.
Great for looking at ZCPR3 itself, testing RCPs and FCPs, etc. I am
concurrently creating the DEBUG Resident Command Package which is a
scaled-down version of MU3, but it can be invoked without impacting
the TPA at all.
Finally, the new VFILER for ZCPR3 is almost done. Just a few
hours work on it to go. I was in the middle of VFILER when Hal Carter
came up with the idea of having an MU3 utility after he saw DU3 run,
and so the break to create MU3 occurred. I need to play with MU3 a
little to decide what features it really needs before it will be
finished.
Once DU3, MU3, and VFILER are done, the last major utility,
VMENU, will be on the agenda. VMENU is a combination of VFILER and
MENU which I think will be a neat tool by itself. I have some
concerns about how fast it will be, creating new directory displays
every time it is invoked, and I think these concerns will be resolved
only after VMENU is running and I have used it a few times.
A few little utilities will also be included in the ZCPR3
Phase 2 release, but they are minor in terms of effort.
The book is now outlined, with Hal Carter providing many
useful ideas on what its structure and nature should be (thanks, Hal).
I think it will be vastly superior to the ZCPR2 documentation, having
a nice table of contents, index, appendices summarizing commands
available with the various utilities and subsystems, etc. A lot of
the book can be put together from the online documentation, so that
should go quickly, but there are still major portions which I need to
write. I hope to have the outline and online documentation fill
complete and sent to the publisher by the end of this week, so this
part can be edited while I proceed with the newer, detailed sections.
The second book, on the ZCPR3 libraries, will also be started soon,
but I'm not sure when.
In the meantime, the installation manual and user's
perspective document are being printed by Echelon now, and Echelon
plans to distribute it with the $39 basic set of disks. You can also
get these books independently from Echelon for a small price ($9 was
the last figure I heard). Contact Echelon for details. You, of
course, have several options in acquiring hardcopy of this
documentation -- it is on disk and can be printed, but the whole thing
is on the order of 160 pages. Your local computer club may decide to
make a print run on it also. Note that I have been talking about the
Phase 1 manuals (on the Phase 1 disks) so far. The books are a
different matter and will not be available on disk (who would want to
print something THAT BIG anyway?).
Finally, there may be a ZCPR3 newsletter in the works. More
details later if this becomes reality.
Rick